Lemon Coconut Pie

I recently found this awesome enamel pie plate at Value Village for $3 and knew I had to have it.  It's so pretty!  The only problem is that unless it's a pot pie, I never make pies.  The reason being that I suck at making pie crust.  I don't know why, I follow directions and tips, but my pie crusts never turn out.  So I decided to make a crust out of crushed Lady Fingers instead.  Way easier, and it tastes great too!  

I love everything lemony, and this pie is no exception.  I also like that it's different from lemon meringue...because you can't have too many types of lemon pies:)

Lemon Coconut Pie

1 1/4 cups crushed Lady Finger Biscuits

1/4 cup + 3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup melted butter

zest and juice from one lemon

2 eggs

2 tbsp flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 350F.  Mix the crushed Lady Fingers with 1/4 cup of sugar, the butter, and the lemon zest.  Press the mixture evenly into the bottom and sides of a pie pan.  Bake for 8 minutes.

Beat the eggs and remaining sugar together until well blended.  Add the flour, lemon juice, baking powder, and salt and mix well.  Pour into the cooked pie crust and then cover with the coconut.  Bake for 25 minutes, or until browned.  Chill in the fridge for a few hours before cutting.  Enjoy!

Nut and Seed Energy Bars

In my Christmas Stocking this year I found a delicious organic nut and seed bar that I absolutely loved because it had no granola in it.  It was just nuts, seeds, and puffed brown rice...so delicious.  I wanted to buy more but the only place I could find them was at a Health Food Store where they were $3 each, which I really didn't want to pay.  (Maybe Santa's Elves get a good discount??)  So I decided I would try to find a recipe that would make something similar. However every recipe I found had oatmeal in it, so I had to adapt one by using shredded coconut instead.  I didn't find puffed brown rice at any stores for use in this recipe, but if I ever do find some I will definitely make these again using it.  I would also like to try it with different nuts, like Brazil nuts or Filberts.  Some of the sesame seeds could also be replaced with Chia or Hemp seeds, or even some coarsely ground flax seeds.  The sky is the limit!:)

Healthy Nut and Seed Bars

1/2 cup sesame seeds

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup almonds

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup shredded coconut

1/4 cup unsalted sunflower seeds

3 tbsp brown sugar

3 tbsp honey

In a large frying pan toast the sesame seeds over medium heat, just until they become aromatic and begin to brown.  Remove from heat.  In a saucepan melt the sugar and honey together and bring to a boil.  Mix the seeds and nut into the sugar mixture and coat well.  Pour out onto a piece of parchment paper and cover with another piece.  Use your hands to flatten into a large rectangle.  Let cool slightly before cutting into bar shapes.  Cool completely before storing.

Buttery Tea Biscuits

These melt-in-your-mouth tea biscuits were a childhood staple while I was growing up.  My mom would make them all the time, and they were always a buttery, wonderful treat.  They are awesome with clam chowder, and even better for dessert (or tea time) served with butter and homemade jam.  I also like them made into Strawberry Shortcakes.  You just cut them in half, top with strawberries and whipped cream, and then pour a strawberry sauce over it all.  Delicious.
And the best thing about them is that they take about 5 minutes to prepare, and 15 to bake, so you have warm baked goodness in no time.

Tea Biscuits

2 cups all purpose flour

4 tsps baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup butter (room temperature)

1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 450F.  Mix together dry ingredients.  Cut in the butter using a pastry blender or 2 knives until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.  Make a well in the centre and slowly pour the milk into it.  Stir the dough just until it all sticks together.  

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly for a minute or two.  Do not over knead, it should come together quite quickly.  Roll out until it is about 1/2 inch thick and then cut into 15-18 circles (I use the rim of a glass as I do not have a biscuit cutter).  Place on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes.  They will be golden brown on top.  

These are best served hot from the oven.

Banana Bread

Banana bread is one of those things that has to be homemade.  It's just so much better, and you can taste that it's made with real bananas.  The secret to this banana bread is to let it sit for 6 hours before slicing into it.  It's so hard to wait that long, but it's worth it.  It makes the banana bread so moist and keeps it nice and dense.  You also have to make sure you use overripe bananas with it.  I have made it with yellow bananas, and it definitely wasn't as moist.  The more black spots the better!  I prefer to make my banana bread with chocolate chips instead of walnuts, but since the hubby doesn't like chocolate I made this one with the nuts.  This is the recipe from my family's cooking bible "Five Roses Cookbook".

Banana Bread

1 1/2 cups All-Purpose flour

2 tsps baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or chocolate chips!)

2 eggs, beaten

1/3 cup corn syrup

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3-4 bananas)

Preheat oven to 350F.  

Stir dry ingredients and nuts together in a large bowl.  In a seperate bowl mix the remaining ingredients together.  Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and then pour in the liquid.  Stir together just until flour is moistened.  Pour into a greased loaf plan and bake for 55 to 60 minutes.  Let sit for 6 hours or overnight before slicing.

Healthy Chocolate Truffles

These are simply amazing!  I made them last night and could not believe how chocolatey and delicious they were.  And there isn't even any sugar in them.  They take about 5 minutes in total to make too, so very easy to whip some up when you are craving some chocolate.  I don't ever eat dates, and really don't like date squares, so I was worried that these would taste too much like dates for me.  But all I could taste was chocolate.  I did add a bit of sugar to these ones because I threw in some mini white chocolate chips that I had (about 3 tablespoons) and I dusted icing sugar over them to make them look pretty.  But I had tasted them before adding those 2 ingredients and they were just as delicious, so if you want sugar-free, vegan truffles they will still taste good!  The next time I make these I am definitely doubling the recipe because they are just that good.  This recipe makes about 20 balls.

Healthy Chocolate Truffles

1 cup sweet dates
1/2 cup pecans (walnuts would probably work too)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 tablespoons shredded coconut
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
pinch of salt
Optional: chocolate chips and/or icing sugar

Mix all the ingredients (except icing sugar, if using) in a food processor until dates are finely chopped.  Shape into small, bite-sized balls.  Dust with icing sugar.  Enjoy!

Triple Lemon Bread

I am a big fan of lemon desserts.  Actually I prefer lemon to (gasp!) chocolate.  Lemon pie is my favourite pie, and that's what I get instead of cake on my birthday...unless my mom makes me a cheesecake, cheesecake will always win The Battle of Desserts.  Mmm, I could really go for some lemon cheesecake with chocolate ganache and fresh raspberries on top.  Why am I thinking of this?  Just torturing myself while I'm stuck at work.  Anyway, back to the lemon bread.  This is a new recipe I tried, from Kraft's "What's Cooking?" Magazine.  It was really delicious, moist, and lemony!  And so easy to make, everything mixes up in one bowl.  It takes about 4 lemons to come up with 1/4 cup of zest, but only 1 to get the juice, so you end up with a few leftover, zested lemons.  I sliced them up and put them in a jug with water and a bit of sugar so I had fresh lemonade to drink.  Yum, yum!

Triple Lemon Bread 

(Makes two loaves)

1 cup boiling water

1 pkg. lemon jelly powder

1 pkg. lemon cake mix

3/4 cup oil (I used vegetable)

1/4 cup lemon zest

4 eggs

Topping:

1 cup icing sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350.  Lightly butter 2 loaf pans.  Pour boiling water over jelly powder in large bowl, stir until completely dissolved. Add rest of ingredients (except for sugar and juice) stir to moisten, and then beat with mixer until well-blended.  

Pour into pans and bake for 40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.  Pierce loaves with a fork all over, mix the icing sugar and lemon juice together, and then pour over top of loaves.  Cool the bread for 30 minutes before removing from the pans, then place on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Lemonade:

Slice 2 lemons and put in a pitcher.  Juice one lemon and add to pitcher.  Add 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 cup of boiling water.  Stir and add 3 cups cold water.  Refrigerate for a few hours, the longer the better.  Taste before completely filling up a glass, you may want to add more sugar and/or water.

Crepes with Manjar (Chilean Dulce de Leche)

Manjar is the Frank's Red Hot Sauce of Chile: they put that sh*t on everything!  While I was in Chile I picked up a 1 kg container of it to bring back with me.  That's a lot of manjar, and I am having trouble figuring out what to do with it all.  I need to make a Tres Leche cake with a layer of manjar in it, because that would be delicious.  But until I get around to tackling that dessert, I thought some crepes filled with manjar would be amazing.  You can find a lot of recipes to make your own manjar online, or you can just buy some pre-made Dulce de Leche at a grocery store.  From what I've read, manjar is Dulce de Leche, but my Chilean friends insist manjar is better.  I have a sweet tooth in the morning, so I made this for a Saturday breakfast, but it would make a tasty dessert as well.

This recipe made about 8 crepes:

Crepes with Manjar

1 cup flour

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup water

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp melted butter

Mix the flour and eggs together in a large bowl.  Gradually add the milk and water, stir to combine.  Add the salt and butter and beat until smooth.  Heat a frying pan over med-high heat.  Lightly coat the pan with oil.  Pour about 1/4 cup of batter into center of pan, then tilt the pan so that the batter spreads out evenly to make a nice thin crepe.  Cook until bottom is light brown, and then flip and cook other side.  Put pieces of waxed paper in between cooked crepes to prevent them from sticking together while others are being made.

Once all of the crepes are cooked spread a thin amount of manjar on each one and roll up.  Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve with fresh fruit.  Delicious!